Roadway Data

Major FHWA Categories

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) requires their approval for making changes to any of these three important roadway classifiers:

• National Highway System
• Functional Classification
• Federal Urban/Rural status, as defined by Federal Adjusted Urban Area (FAUA) boundaries

The majority of federal funding for transportation purposes comes from two programs-- the Surface Transportation Program (STP) and the National Highway Performance Program (NHPP). MAP-21 placed a large portion of funding in the NHPP, which can only be used on roadways on the National Highway System. To receive STP funding, the functional classification and the rural/urban status of roadways is of primary importance. In addition to funding, functional classification and rural/urban status are used extensively in reporting, statistical analysis used to describe the nation’s roadway system, and for decision making at all levels.

Available on the Data Products page are downloadable reports and GIS shapefiles of these three FHWA categories for use by local public agencies (LPAs), metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) and others. The information will be refreshed each quarter and users are encouraged to ensure they are using the most current data in their decision making.

Data Products for Major FHWA Categories include:

Excel Spreadsheets

• Route reference (Route ID, Begin True Miles, End True Miles) for entire public road system showing the NHS, Functional Classification, Federal Urban/Rural classification, and Legislative/Congressional District for each roadway segment, with a tab for each Area Transportation Partnership (ATP, roughly similar to MnDOT Construction Districts)
• NHS miles by County and City boundaries
• Length of each NHS route
• Functional Classification miles by County and City boundaries, not including local roads
• Centerline miles within each Federal Adjusted Urban Area (FAUA), including rural roads

GIS shapefiles

• All Categories-- attribute table includes NHS, Functional Class, Federal Urban/Rural Code, Legislative District, Congressional District
• NHS routes
• All routes by Functional Classification, including local roads
• All routes by Federal Urban/Rural code, including rural roads

Use of these documents is subject to MnDOT's disclaimers, legal notices, and policies found at: http://www.mndot.gov/information/disclaimer.html